Juniper WLA & WLC Series (discontinued) vs. UniFi WiFi Access Points

Back in the day these were really well priced, and had some amazing coverage. After using newer Cisco gear, while more expensive, they dont shine so brightly anymore. They did have trouble under load as well. I would recommend them to someone only if they were really constrained in their budget for wifi equipment.

Incentivized

I love the equipment for small-scale commercial solutions and quality without the price tag. I might not recommend their products for a large organization with multiple locations and servers. However, the GUI interface will allow remote access and setup across the network. I think this is a great solution for small businesses and families or home office solutions, provided there is some IT knowledge for setup and maintenance.

Incentivized

• Great pricing structure
• Licensing was easy and straight forward
• Interface was quick and simple

Incentivized

• Ubiquti WLAN is very easy on setup for fast deployment.
• The monitoring software is offered at different level. Cloudkey, or just throwing up their free controller on a PC somewhere.
• It also does a great job of publishing timely updates to firmware, and addressing bug issues.
• The ease of the interface, without adding a bunch of fluff, makes this literally the best out there in my opinion.

Incentivized

• Bug patches were always a problem to do
• Support was rarely helpeful
• It seemed they stopped releasing fixes for many bugs we encountered so we had to live with them

Incentivized

• Initial configuration of access points can be rather tricky. Each one I have installed was a complete pain to get setup and connected with the UniFi Controller software. I never worked out what causes me problems, but thankfully once I've stumbled through the correct procedure, it does work completely reliably after that, for years on end.
• The UniFi Controller software will nag you to share usage data. When offered to opt-in, I choose not to do so, but you'll eventually be nagged again on a future login.
• Some of the 'tooltips' within the Controller software could be more informative.

Incentivized

Ubiquiti makes great Access points at various tiers provided far better coverage and throughput than consumer-grade wireless repeaters and routers. We have not had any performance complaints from guests or from the administration who use the wifi on a daily basis.

Incentivized

Ubiquiti support is minimal, which is said to help decrease the cost of the equipment. However, with many reports of emails going directly to the Ubiquiti support line taking days to hear a response, you're better off either engaging with the community forums for help from fellow UniFi users or reaching out to a reseller that has training on the equipment that can assist.

Incentivized

Ubiquiti is overall easier to work with. There is no special training needed to accomplish many of the things required with a Cisco product. Since my time is stretched thin, I need something that I can manage without being weighed down by command-line communications. Also, I am able to use my wireless devices to maintain every Ubiquiti device on my network.

Incentivized

• A bit more time troubleshooting client disconnects
• Money saved on the more expensive hardware
• Frustration with support on many occasions

Incentivized

• Can't say it enough, prices are awesome, so ROI is very high IMHO.
• Remote cloud management allows me to service more clients at greater distances.
• Project estimates become much more attractive when you can show the savings vs more expensive solutions.

Incentivized